In a town centered around thousands of University students, some community members might question Marcia Wilbur’s decision to open another college.

The Athens School of Ministry and Worship is set to open its doors to students in 2012. ALAN LIOW/STAFF

But Wilbur feels that her school fills Athens’ need for one more post-secondary institution — one guided by faith.

Opening in the fall of 2012, Wilbur and a team of board members will open the Athens School of Ministry and Worship Arts. Not yet accredited, the school will offer associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s degrees and certificates as well as short courses in ministry that are more personally-focused.

Wilbur said she felt called to Athens for the purpose of opening a Christian, faith-based school.

“We see a real need here and there are a number of students at the University who are engaged in the Christian ministries on campus,” she said. “They have huge hearts for God and they want to do something for the kingdom and they don’t really know what or why. There’s something about college towns and one things that’s true is students come here and don’t want to leave. They’re very excited and want to get more training in ministry, but they don’t necessarily want to go somewhere else to do it.”

Offering a certificate program and “Lifelong Ministry” classes, Wilbur hopes University students might seek a certificate program or other faith-based class to supplement their University education.

ASMWA joins other colleges in the state with a religious focus, like Toccoa Falls College and Truett McConnell College, but Wilbur said what makes this school stand out is its focus on ministerial degrees, not other academic degrees.

The school aims to be accredited — which will take two years and a graduating class, according to state requirements. After accreditation however, Wilbur said she hopes that students will be able to attend and transfer their credits to the University.

For Phil Goodwin, a University alumnus who owns his own graphic design business, the matter of accreditation does not matter as much as the opportunity to attend and learn about what interests him through ASMWA.

“I’m excited just to learn. I never liked to read or anything before Jesus, unless it was a form or a graphic,” he said. “I was never really interested in history, but I’ve gotten this new passion for learning through the Holy Spirit.”

Goodwin said he is going through the application process — it opened Sept. 30 and is available through the Athens School of Ministry and Worship Arts’ website.

“I’m going through the application right now and I got to that point and I don’t even know that I want to study,” he said. “I want to learn Hebrew and I think they are going to teach me those classes. I feel called to Israel and the middle east and any classes that lead to that.”

The school offers several programs for their certificate, associate’s, bacheror’s and masters programs including Christian Ministry, Generational Ministry, Field Ministry, Christian Media and the master’s only program in Healing Ministry.

Wilbur said the Christian Media program is focused on music and directly inspired by the fact that Athens is a music town.

“I play drums and I wasn’t even a Christian until about 2 years ago and God got involved in my life,” Goodwin said. “I think it’s awesome that there’s a musical focus. Music’s so powerful, especially when it’s worshipping God. I think it’s big for Athens being such a music town.”

Wilbur said that all of the majors aimed to deepen the spiritual health of students, but also show them a practical way to minister.

“One of the things is, I’m a pragmatist, that there has to be a practical application for what you’re learning,” she said. “It’s great to study the Bible, everybody should be doing that, but we don’t study the Bible so that we can feel good about the Bible, god commands us to ‘go.’”

The cost of attending the school is slightly less than that of the University, at $295 a credit hours for one class, $275 per credit hour for two classes and $250 per credit hour for three or more classes.

Wilbur encourages anyone interested to apply. For financial aid, she said they are working on assembling a scholarship fund.

“Our primary goal is to help raise students raise support, we are working on building a scholarship fund, but it’s just in the beginning stages. We really though want to discourage student loans, because that’s not a biblical model of how to live,” she said. “When students finish at the Athens school of ministry, we want them to be able to dive in to whatever ministry experience God calls them to. And if they’re shackled around their necks with this really heavy debt, then they may not be able to do what God’s calling them to do.”

For prospective-student Goodwin, he said he is concerned with admission and hopes others interested will check out the programs.

“I would say at the very least, come and check it out. I don’t know what everything’s going to look like,” he said. “I’m excited to go to the open house on Sunday, I don’t even know what’s really coming, what God’s plan is for all of this, but if people are even the tiniest bit interested, they should check it out and meet the staff and meet Marcia and check out the website.”

The Athens School of Ministry and Worship Arts’ open house is this Sunday Nov. 6 from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at Watkinsville First United Methodist Church at the intersection of Highway 441 and New High Shoals Road.

INFO

More open houses and applications are available on the school’s website: http://asmwa.org/.